Libyan winners of Japanese and Norwegian international olive oil competitions were honoured by the Libyan government yesterday.
The ceremony took place at the Ministry of Economy and Trade headed by Mohamed Hwej, with the Director General of the National Programme for Small and Medium Enterprises, Abdel Nasser Abu Zagia, in the presence of the Minister of Finance, Khaled Al-Mabrouk, and the Director General of the Libyan Export Promotion Centre (LEPC), Mohamed Al-Deeb.
Those honoured were the winners of the Japanese competition (JOOP 2023), Jalal Al-Lamushi, who won gold, and Abdul Rahman Al-Aswad and Yunis Gadmour, who won silver medals. Khaled Al-Amin, had won gold at the Scandinavia competition in Norway.
Speaking exclusively to Libya Herald in April, Al-Lamushi had complained that he had received no support from the Libyan government. At yesterday’s ceremony, the Director of the LEPC pledged to pay the participation fees for the winners in these two competitions.
Establishing transformational industries
Commenting on the meeting, the Director General of the National Program for Small and Medium Enterprises, Abdel Nasser Abu Zagia, stated that this meeting came in order to support local olive oil producers and encourage the possibility of establishing transformational industries with the support of the state and financing institutions.
Training for Libyan olive oil producers
He emphasized the support of the National Program for Small and Medium Enterprises through training programmes for emerging business owners in the field of olive oil cultivation. This is in order to increase the quantities of the Libyan product and introduce it in the relevant international forums.
Need to support olive oil producers
Abu Zagia added that the Ministry of Economy stressed, through its minister, the need to support such initiatives and to prepare all means to enable olive oil producers to participate in upcoming international participation. It will also motivate farmers to expand the cultivation of olive trees, especially local varieties of high productivity and quality, and to open training centres to train farmers and owners of presses on how to raise the quality of olive oil production and multiply it.
To support agricultural exports in general
Abu Zagia pledged to support all initiatives related to the production of olive oil and any local agricultural products that can be exported abroad, including dates, by holding training courses on everything related to agricultural products, from planting, to harvesting, to packaging and ending with selling and exporting.
Team formed to develop support programme
In conclusion, a team was formed to work on developing a programme to support the production of olive oil and issue its recommendations in this regard.
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Libyan olive oils win prizes at Berlin awards – plans to increase production | (libyaherald.com)
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Libya organizes non-oil exports conference – Tripoli, 16-17 March | (libyaherald.com)
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Libya takes first steps towards exporting fish to Europe | (libyaherald.com)
Oil and olive oil fair opens in Tripoli | (libyaherald.com)
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Eighth Libyan Dates and Associated Industries exhibition opens in Tripoli | (libyaherald.com)
